"Truth in Charity" - Issues of the day, upcoming events, news, & pictures. (This blog is NOT an official blog of the Diocese of Harrisburg. All posts and comments are simply the opinions, ideas, thoughts, attitudes and beliefs of the individual posters.)

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About Me

I am a Deacon for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg. In addition, I am the Program Director for Pennsylvania's pregnancy support and parenting education program administered by our non-profit company, Real Alternatives.

The personal motto of a prelate has always been intended to represent his personal spirituality and theologically-based philosophy of life. Bishop Rhoades' episcopal motto, VERITATEM IN CARITATE, translates into English as "Truth in Charity." As rector of Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary, he steadfastly encouraged future priests to always be faithful in proclaiming and living the truth of the Gospel in charity.The words of this motto are found in Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “let us proclaim the truth in charity and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head” (4:15).The Second Vatican Council stated, “Christ continually provides in his body, that is, in the Church, for gifts of ministries through which, by his power, we serve each other unto salvation so that, carrying out the truth in charity, we may through all things grow unto him who is our head” (Lumen Gentium 7).The Second Vatican Council also stated, “All Christians are earnestly to speak the truth in charity and join with all peace-loving people in pleading for peace and trying to bring it about” (Gaudium et Spes 78).

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Sunday, February 1, 2009

The Story of Stojan Adasevic

Another 'Champion of Abortion' Becomes Defender of LifeThis is the story of Stojan Adasevic. Never heard of him? Me neither until very recently.

Adasevic performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day. But guess what? He is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia. For the previous 26 years, Adasevic was the most renowned abortion doctor in the country.

The books that he studied from in Serbia's communist regime taught him the lie that abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue. The development of the ultrasound did not change his opinion. However, over time his closed mind and hard heart slowly began to change. His many sleepless night caused him to sit up and start to take notice.

Then the miracle occured. One night while sleeping, he asked the man wearing a black and white habit who repeatedly appeared in his dreams who he was. Prior to then, the man would just silently stare at him which often caused him to be jolted out of his sleep in a cold sweat. The man told him that he was "Thomas Aquinas." The name meant absolutley nothing to Adasevic. The man in turn asked him if he wondered who all the children were who also always appeared in the dreams. Aquinas told him that the children were those whose lives he terminated by perfoming abortions on their mothers.

Adasevic vowed to never commit an abortion again! However, his decision was immediately tested. A cousin of his showed up the same day requesting an abortion for his pregnant girlfriend, the ninth one she would undergo! Already violating the pledge he had just made, Adasevic chose to go forward with the abortion.

During the abortion procedure, the baby's heart came out still beating. Now convicted by what he knew and saw, Adasevic had no doubts that he had just killed a human being. He informed the hospital that he would never do an abortion again. He was the first doctor in Communist Yugoslavia to do so.

He was encouraged again one other time by St. Thomas at a point when he was losing hope. Aquinas, referring to him as his "good friend," told him in another dream to not give up and to keep going. It was then that Adasevic became involved in the pro-life movement. Somehow he was able to convince Yugoslav television to air the film ‘The Silent Scream,’ by another famous former abortionist, Doctor Bernard Nathanson.

As many now know from the Nancy Pelosi incident, based upon what was known at the time, while not saying that abortion was acceptable, St. Thomas wrote that human life began forty days after fertilization. Adasevic opined in one article that "perhaps the saint wanted to make amends for that error.”

Stojan Adasevic continues to fight for the lives of the unborn today.

Praise be God and thanks be to God for the great Saint, Thomas Aquinas!